UP 150 Express on last leg of sesquicentennial trip

Steam locomotive No. 844 is on the final leg of the UP 150 Express tour to Houston's Amtrak Station for the October 26-28 commemoration to President Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Act of Congress that created the Union Pacific Railroad 150 years ago.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker will serve as honorary engineer when the steam train arrives. UP Executive Vice President Diane Duren and Charley Eisele, senior vice president-Strategic Planning & Administration, will join the mayor aboard the locomotive and proclaim Houston as an official Train Town at an arrival ceremony that kicks off the weekend-long celebration.

The arrival ceremony precedes a community celebration, October 27-28, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In addition to getting a close-up look at No. 844, Houstonians can step inside Union Pacific's vintage Promontory baggage car that has been transformed into a state-of-the-art traveling museum. The traveling display closely replicates the full-scale Building America exhibit that opened earlier this year at the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The traveling exhibit takes visitors back in time to illustrate how Union Pacific supported communities as they were establishing along the way as the transcontinental railroad was built.